Dowsett Chantelle J, Huston Aletha C, Imes Amy E
University of Texas at Austin, Lisa Gennetian, The Brookings Institute.
Early Child Res Q. 2008 Jan 1;23(1):69-93. doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2007.06.003.
We use observations from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) to compare structural and process characteristics of child care centers, family child care homes (nonrelative care in a home setting) and care by relatives for 2, 3- and 4 ½-year-old children. Type of care differences in structural and caregiver characteristics were consistent across ages: centers had higher child-to-adult ratios and bigger groups; centers had caregivers with better education, more training in early childhood, and less traditional beliefs about child rearing. Children in centers experienced more cognitive stimulation, less frequent language interactions with adults, less frequent negative interactions with adults, and less television viewing than did those in other types of care. In centers and family child care homes compared to relative settings, children engaged in more positive and negative interactions with peers and spent more time in transition and unoccupied. Curvilinear associations were found between structural features of care and family income, particularly for caregiver education and training. In contrast, process measures of caregiving rose monotonically with family income. Children from high-income families experienced more sensitive care, more cognitive stimulation, and fewer negative interactions with adults than did those from low-income families. We interpret the findings by linking the structural features and caregiver training to the cognitive and social processes observed in different types of care. Future research designed to understand the influences of child care on children's behavior might benefit from using this more nuanced description of child care experiences.
我们利用美国国立儿童健康与人类发展研究所（NICHD）的早期儿童保育与青少年发展研究（SECCYD）的观察结果，比较了儿童保育中心、家庭儿童保育院（家庭环境中的非亲属照料）以及亲属照料中2岁、3岁和4岁半儿童的结构特征和过程特征。照料类型在结构和照料者特征方面的差异在各年龄段都是一致的：儿童保育中心的儿童与成人比例更高，群体更大；儿童保育中心的照料者受教育程度更高，接受的幼儿培训更多，对育儿的传统观念更少。与其他类型照料中的儿童相比，儿童保育中心的儿童受到更多的认知刺激，与成人的语言互动更不频繁，与成人的负面互动更少，看电视的时间也更少。与亲属照料环境相比，在儿童保育中心和家庭儿童保育院中，儿童与同伴进行的积极和消极互动更多，在过渡和空闲时间花费的时间更多。发现照料的结构特征与家庭收入之间存在曲线关联，尤其是在照料者的教育和培训方面。相比之下，照料过程的指标随家庭收入单调上升。高收入家庭的儿童比低收入家庭的儿童得到更贴心的照料、更多的认知刺激，与成人的负面互动也更少。我们通过将结构特征和照料者培训与在不同类型照料中观察到的认知和社会过程联系起来，来解释这些发现。旨在了解儿童保育对儿童行为影响的未来研究，可能会受益于使用这种对比更加细致入微的儿童保育经历描述。
